Film Festivals: Positive Reviews & Deserved Boos: Pt. 4 - Los Angeles Film & Script, Fantastic Planet & Tally Shorts Festivals

AN ONGOING SERIES ABOUT ONE SILLY LITTLE MAN’S FILM FESTIVAL SUBMISSION EXPERIENCE

Film Festivals: Positive Reviews & Deserved Boos: Pt. 4 – Los Angeles Film & Script, Fantastic Planet & Tally Shorts Festivals

Article by Justin Bowler

Two directors are talking at an opening night film festival gala. The 1st director says “I’m excited to be a part of the competition, because I only cold submitted to the festival.” The 2nd director says “I’m excited to be here, because they asked me ‘If you know you will win, will you attend?’”

Hello filmmakers,

This is an ongoing review series about my film festival submission experience. These festival reviews are not based on whether or not I was accepted to their festival, it is based merely on my interaction with them as a filmmaker inquiring about their festival and if my genre film is the right fit. As you will see, some fests are extremely filmmaker friendly, whereas others can’t/won’t/don’t respond to simple eligibility questions.

Filmmakers submit their films online to festivals. After paying upwards of $100 just to be considered, they don’t even know if anyone actually watched the film. They never speak with anyone from the fest. They don’t know who is judging the film. They just have to “trust the system”. It can be very sketchy. Some festivals take the time to make sure it isn’t, whereas others…

Check out my friend Paul Osborne’s documentary Official Rejection. It will give you some real insight into how unfriendly some fests are to filmmakers. Sadly, it will blow your mind.

Let me set the scene. I have a short film called OH, THE EFFING HORROR. (That’s right, the title is meant to be shouted.)

(Check out the teaser HERE)

Clearly, it is a genre picture. It’s a horror/comedy or “Horr-omedy”. In addition to the gore and general subject matter, it contains nudity. Finally, with a run time of almost seventeen minutes, it may be too long for some festivals to program. All three of these points give rise to questions I have for festivals.

First, do they program horror films? (The majority of the fests out there are NOT horror fests, so I would like to know if they even consider the genre in their short film competition.)
Second, do they accept films with nudity? (Plenty of festivals have to keep it family friendly. I don’t have a problem with that, but, I would like to know that before I shell out my $45.)
Third, is a seventeen minute run time too long? (Many fests have time limits for their shorts, but don’t always post that info on WithoutaBox.com or FilmFreeway.com.) (For you newcomers, these are the two websites used for the majority of festival submissions.)

My journey began by contacting festivals through the informational e-mail they listed on WithoutaBox.com or FilmFreeway.com. In my e-mail, I stated who I was, the answers I was seeking and inquired who could answer. Typically, I was referred to the Artistic Director or Programming Director.

Los Angeles Film and Script Festival
Submission Pricev- Up to $60

I e-mailed the informational e-mail listed on WithoutABox on September 1st. They did not respond. So, for the fun of it, I e-mailed again on October 1st, ten days after the submission deadline. On October 4th, at 10:50am they told me who to contact regarding submission questions. I found their response funny.

Justin,
You can direct any questions you may have to this e-mail address and we’ll get back to you. Thank you!
Best,
LAFSF.

Oh, the irony, their statement was a complete lie. They didn’t get back to me. I had to send them TWO emails before I got a response. OK. So, I sent my list of questions to the e-mail I had e-mailed twice before, three hours after their response (at 1:04pm that day). They e-mailed me back on October 11th.

Good Morning Justin,
Thank you for your inquiry. Here are the answers to your questions.
We are not against nudity in films.
17 minutes is not too long at all. We screen short films up to 45 minutes.
We grant filmmakers comp tickets and present winners with award certificates.
We can get anywhere between 80 to 150 submissions in a season.
We typically select between 20 to 30 projects.
We don’t get many horror film submissions but we have screened a good amount of them between all of our seasons.
Thanks again and we wish you a great day.
Best,
LAFSF

I e-mailed them the following day and for grins and giggles, I asked if I could get an extension waiver. After all, I originally contacted them six weeks ago. They responded to me FIVE DAYS LATER on October 17th (at least they are consistent in their disinterest in filmmakers).

We appreciate your interest. Unfortunately we are not accepting any more submissions for the current season at this time. We hope you are still interested in submitting to us next season. Thanks again and we wish you a wonderful week.
Best,
LAFSF

I find it fascinating when responses from festivals do not have a name attached to them. The upstanding fests almost always seem to have an individual who communicates with filmmakers. So, when the salutation is merely the “submission staff”, or the festival, or “LAFSF” and the like, then it raises a red flag.

There are many reasons why a festival would not return an e-mail. That being said, the festival should exist to serve the filmmaker. After all, the filmmakers are the ones funding the festival. When things go wrong due to poor leadership, overworked staff, lack of volunteers, etc. it is the filmmaker who suffers, not the festival, since, the festival still receives the aforementioned funding. Even if the e-mail just slipped through the cracks and it was an honest mistake, the outcome is the same. The filmmaker gets screwed.

REVIEW:
The Los Angeles Film and Script Festival gets a DESERVED BOO for filmmaker friendliness. I contacted them September 1st with an eligibility inquiry. They didn’t get back to me. I contacted the again on October 1st with the same inquiry. They responded on October 4th. I immediately e-mailed them very specific questions. They got back to me on October 11th. Due to their lack of response, I missed the deadline. If they are too swamped to return an eligibility e-mail, then, perhaps, they are too swamped to actually watch the films that are submitted. Save your money and don’t cold submit. This doesn’t pass the sniff test.

TALLY SHORTS
Submission Price – Up to $20

I sent an e-mail off to the informational address they provided on WithoutABox. I received an immediate response from their programming director Mark Bauer, who also cc’ed the Artistic Director in on the conversation.

Hi Justin,

We have found that we have a portion of our audience that is very much into horror films of various types, and as such we typically have one or two blocks devoted solely to the horror genre.

We are not opposed or against any type of film or the contents of what filmmakers put in their films. We see that as the artistic choice of the filmmaker. We are looking for films that tell a strong story, are well made, and are likely to entertain our audience. We leave the rest up to the filmmaker.

We do not have any premiere requirements and we do not give priority to anyone. We judge films one at a time, and on their own merit.
Let me know if you have any more questions!

Thanks,
Mark Bauer
Programming Director
Tally Shorts Film Festival

I could not have asked for more in a response. I immediately submitted knowing I would get a fair shake.

REVIEW:
Tally Shorts gets a POSITIVE REVIEW for their filmmaker friendliness. As you can see from this fantastic and immediate response, they made sure that they thoroughly answered the question and were exceptionally fast in doing so.

FANTASTIC PLANET: Sydney Sci-Fi & Fantasy Film Festival
Submission Price – Up to $40

I e-mailed the informational e-mail listed on WithoutABox and got a response from Dean Bertram, Festival Director.

Hi Justin,

Thanks for your questions. …I like a broad program that ticks several boxes, but I tend to program in equal parts for myself and the audience. By this I mean, that say there is a low-budget, risk-taking, festival worthy film that might not please everyone (or say even please most people) but I adore it, I’ll program it nonetheless. And conversely, if there is a film that I think will really resonate with the fest’s audience, but I’m not particularly overwhelmed by it, I’ll play that as well.

Ideally, you have a convergence, ie I dig the film a lot, and I think the fest’s audience will really dig it too. All of that said, every year there are dozens of films that fit either, or both, of the above criteria, but I might not have the program space to fit. That’s the hardest job of being a programmer (at least for me): ie not choosing what to screen, but choosing what not to screen from an over abundant short list. And it always sucks knowing that something was really worthy, and deserved to screen, but you just can’t fit it in the program (as it’s already loaded with other films that beat out strong competition).

As an aside: as a filmmaker myself, I am hyper-conscious of the dirty, rarely spoken of, secret of the film festival world: ie a lot of festivals (particularly of mid tier and higher) screen very few films from their cold submissions. Instead the vast majority of their program comes from what’s already hot on the fest scene, and/or buzzy titles already repped by influential sales agents/distributors.

At both A Night of Horror Film Festival, and Fantastic Planet Film Festival, we have always maintained a policy that at least 50% of our feature slots are reserved for cold submissions (and often more in the years where submissions are particularly strong), and our short slots are 90% plus reserved for cold submissions. I was submitting my own shorts to festivals before I founded either festival, so I feel that it’s particularly disingenuous when you can look at a fest’s program and literally work out that the vast majority of their scheduled films (features perhaps more so than shorts) have come from established sources, and are clearly not cold submissions. Of course this is never advertised by any of the festivals that program this way, because how many filmmakers would bother to submit to a festival if they realised that they were competing with hundreds, or perhaps thousands of other films, for a handful of non-sourced slots?

And no, we most definitely are not against nudity.

This is by far, one of the best and most honest answers I have received from any festival. Not only did Dean answer my questions directly, and in a timely manner, but also he addressed the very ugly concern many filmmakers have about cold submissions. With a candid, direct, and honest response from Dean, I was instantly sold that this was an upstanding festival. I happily submitted.

REVIEW:
FANTASTIC PLANET: Sydney Sci-Fi & Fantasy Film Festival gets a POSITIVE REVIEW for their filmmaker friendliness. They are as real as it gets and all festivals should take a page out of their book.

This was a very interesting week with highly differentiating responses, but, all emitting from opposite sides of the same problem: the ugly truth about cold submissions. Check back after Los Angeles Film and Script Festival announces their line up. I wonder how much of their “their program comes from what’s already hot on the fest scene, and/or buzzy titles already repped by influential sales agents/distributors… have come from established sources, and are clearly not cold submissions.” We shall see.